This Date in Aviation History: September 1 - September 4

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 09/04/2018 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, planelopnik history, Planelopnik

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from September 1 through September 4.

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(Author unknown)

September 1, 1983 – Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by Soviet fighters. Following the end of WWII in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union, allies in the fight against Hitler’s Germany, quickly became ideological enemies. Their struggle for world political and cultural influence began a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that would last for more than forty years. In an era before reliable spy satellites, the Soviet Union and America used aircraft to keep watch on each other, and a number of American aircraft were !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or shot down by Russian fighter jets to keep prying eyes away from Soviet airspace. But even in the modern age of high-powered spy satellites, the Russians remained on edge about aircraft intruding into their airspace, and even went so far as to shoot down a civilian airliner that they believed was on a covert spy mission.

The planned and actual routes of KAL 007 before it was shot down by Soviet fighters. (NASA)

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was scheduled !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (HL7442) service from New York City to Seoul, South Korea, with a stop in Anchorage, Alaska. Onboard were 246 passengers and 23 crew, along with US Congressman !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of Georgia, who was on his way to South Korea for a ceremony recognizing the anniversary of the mutual defense pact signed between South Korea and the US. After departing from Anchorage, Flight 007 headed towards South Korea on North Pacific (NOPAC) route Romeo 20 (R-20), which would take it within 17.5 miles of Soviet airspace off the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Ten minutes after takeoff, Flight 007 began to divert from its intended flight path, most likely due to an improperly set autopilot system. The pilots failed to monitor their position, and did not realize that they were on course to cross the southern end of the Kamchatka Peninsula near the city of Petropavlovsk, home to the Soviet Union’s largest Pacific submarine base during the Cold War.

(Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon interceptor of the type that downed KAL 007 (Author unknown)

At the time, tensions between the US and Russia were at a height not seen since the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1962. The US was was increasing their anti-Soviet military posture, and were developing the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SDI, popularly referred to as Star Wars) to protect the US from nuclear missiles, while also attempting to stage !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ballistic nuclear missiles in Europe that could reach Moscow in just 10 minutes. The US Navy was also in the middle of a huge naval exercise, FleetEx 83, in the north Pacific. Soviet General Secretary !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was convinced that the US was planning a preemptive nuclear strike, and the Russian military was on high alert. Soviet defense radars detected and tracked Flight 007 as it approached Russian airspace, and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters were dispatched to intercept it. After much confusion and discussion among Soviet military brass, the fighter pilots received the order to shoot down the airliner, whether it was civilian or not. One of the Su-15s maneuvered behind the Flight 007 and fired two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! air-to-air missiles, which damaged the hydraulic systems of the airliner and caused the cabin to depressurize. The pilots fought to control the plane, but it eventually spiraled into the water near !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the Sea of Japan, killing all on board.

Chief of General Staff Marshal Nikolai Ogaryov holds a press conference on September 9, 1983 to explain Soviet actions pertaining to the shootdown of KAL 007. (CIA)

Initially, the Russians said nothing about the shoot down, believing that their role could not be proven. Eventually, they admitted to downing the airliner, alleging that it was part of a planned intelligence gathering mission, and suggested that the fighter pilots had mistaken the airliner for a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! reconnaissance plane, one of which actually was operating in the area at the time. While all indications are that it was a simple mistake of navigation, many questions linger over the real story of Flight 007. Driven mostly by the inability to find the bodies of the passengers, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! persists, from a purposeful course deviation to monitor the Russian response, to a forced landing in the Soviet Union and the incarceration of the passengers and crew. Others suggest that the shoot down was part of a massive, unreported aerial battle between the US and Russia. Following the disaster, the US, Japan and the Soviet Union began to cooperate on radar tracking of aircraft in the north Pacific, and President Ronald Reagan announced that the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (GPS) would be made available for civilian use.

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(US Navy)

September 2, 1937 – The first flight of the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! has a rich history of building rugged fighter aircraft for the US Navy, a tradition that can be traced all the way back to the days before WWII. Their penchant for making reliable aircraft that could take a pounding and still bring their pilots home earned the company the nickname “Iron Works,” and one of the first aircraft to truly live up to that name was the F4F Wildcat, the first in a long line of Grumman Cats.

A Grumman F3F-3 on top, and the XF4F-3 below, the prototype for the Wildcat. The lineage between the two fighters is quite clear. (San Diego Air and Space Museum; US Navy)

The Wildcat traces its lineage back to the first biplane fighter that Grumman produced for the Navy, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was notable as being the first carrier-based fighter to feature a retractable landing gear. Grumman continually developed their fighter, first with the F2F, then the F3F, and though both of those iterations were biplane fighters, the classic F4F fuselage high-backed began to take shape. Even as the F3F was undergoing flight testing, Grumman was looking ahead to their next fighter, which was planned as another biplane, but by that time the Navy had made the decision to adopt a monoplane fighter in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Still, the Navy placed an order for Grumman’s newest biplane, the G-16, in case the Buffalo didn’t fulfill their needs. The G-16, soon to be called the XF4F-1, turned out to be inferior to the Buffalo, so Grumman went back to the drawing board and redesigned their new fighter as a monoplane with improved wings and tail. They also beefed up the power with a supercharged !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine. This aircraft was known as the XF4F-3, and the classic Wildcat was born.

A Wildcat of the Royal Navy in 1944 painted with D-Day identification stripes. Though adopted as the Martlet, the Royal Navy later used the name Wildcat for the fighter. (Imperial War Museum)

Both the US Navy and France placed orders for the new fighter. But when France fell to Germany in 1940, those aircraft were sent to England, where they were known as the Martlet, and the iconic warplane of the early Pacific War actually saw its first combat with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. When war broke out in the Pacific in 1941, the Buffalo, which had been chosen over the Wildcat, proved to be nearly useless against modern Japanese fighters, and it was quickly withdrawn in favor of the Wildcat. While the Wildcat was still no match for the Japanese !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! head-to-head, it was still better than the woefully underperforming Buffalo. The Wildcat’s strong construction, armored cockpit, and self-sealing fuel tanks allowed it to absorb punishment from Japanese fighters and stay in the fight while bringing its pilots home, and special tactics, such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , helped keep the Wildcat effective until the more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! arrived in the Pacific in 1943.

A pair of US Navy Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats from Fighting Squadron 3 (VF-3) in flight over Oahu, Hawaii, in April 1942. The planes are flown by VF-3 Commanding Officer LTC John S. Thach (front) LT Edward “Butch” O’Hare, the Navy’s first ace of WWII. O’Hare was killed in action in 1943 near the Gilbert Islands. (US Navy)

By the end of the war, and despite the Zero’s greater maneuverability, better climb rate, longer range, and effective tactics, the Wildcat—and her well-trained pilots—enjoyed an almost 7:1 kill ratio over the enemy. The Wildcat served the Navy and Marine Corps throughout the war and, with the arrival of the larger Hellcat, Wildcat operations were shifted to smaller escort carriers, with Wildcat pilots providing air cover for amphibious assaults. By the end of production in 1945, nearly 8,000 Wildcats had been built, and it was retired at the end of the war.

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(Author unknown)

September 4, 1949 – The first flight of the Bristol Brabazon. History tends to remember the great planes, the ones that broke records, helped win wars, or made the world a smaller place. But oftentimes, aircraft that failed to enter widespread production are as fascinating as those that do. Planes like the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , better known as the Spruce Goose , may not have been commercially viable, but their story is one that is worth telling, an example of thinking on a grand scale that was every bit as impressive as it was impractical. The enormous yet anachronistic Bristol Brabazon earned a place in this category.

The Brabazon was a very large aircraft, roughly the size of a modern 767 (Author unknown)

During WWII, the British government entered into an agreement with the United States whereby England would focus their efforts on the development of bombers and other military aircraft while depending on the US to provide them with transport aircraft. By the middle of the war, and looking to the future, the British government faced the unfortunate situation of having no significant transport aircraft under development to fly passengers after the war. In fact, many of the first postwar British airliners were converted bombers such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! strategic bomber.

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In 1943, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , led by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was assembled to address the vacuum in British aircraft design left by the absence of passenger aircraft development. The committee set to work identifying and categorizing England’s postwar aviation needs, and the report filed by the committee settled on four different aircraft types to provide different levels of range, capacity and propulsion. Type I called for a large, transatlantic airliner intended to serve the routes between London and New York, a 12-hour flight at the time. Bristol had already been working on what was called a “100 ton bomber,” one that found its closest parallel in the American !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but development was halted when such a large bomber was deemed unnecessary. So, when the call came for a large airliner, Bristol returned to the huge bomber and instead developed it into the Brabazon.

To pull such a large aircraft through the sky, the Brabazon featured four sets of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! propellers, but where many aircraft of this design used one engine to turn both propellers, the Brabazon used two. Thus, the Brabazon was powered by a total of eight !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 18-cylinder engines, each providing over 3,000 horsepower to one prop. Cruising speed was 250 mph, with a range of 5,500 miles flying at 25,000 feet. The Brabazon was an enormous aircraft, almost as large as a modern !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and its size would lead one to believe it could carry hundreds of passengers. However, the Brabazon only accommodated 100 passengers. Instead of row upon row of seats, it had sleeping berths, a galley, a 32-seat dining cabin and a lounge with a bar. Bristol hoped that such an arrangement would appeal to big money travelers who could afford such accommodations. But carrying so few passengers in such grand style hearkened back more to transcontinental train travel than transatlantic passenger flight, and the arrangement was not appropriate for the burgeoning passenger market, where making money meant carrying more and more passengers.

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One protoype was constructed, but the airlines had no stomach for such a large, expensive airplane that carried so few passengers. After millions of pounds were spent in development, the Brabazon was canceled in 1953. While the Brabazon itself was deemed a failure, Bristol benefited from what it learned building the huge airliner, knowledge that they put to use developing the more traditional (and more successful) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which first flew in 1952. And the British aviation industry as a whole benefited from the increase in manufacturing infrastructure and techonological development that went along with the Brabazon and the rest of the work of the Brabazon Committee. Following its cancellation, the single Brabazon was broken up for scrap in 1953, along with the second uncompleted prototype, which would have been powered by turboprop engines. The Brabazon, despite its size, was relegated to relative obscurity.

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Short Takeoff

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September 1, 1982 – The United States Air Force Space Command is formed. With the coming of the Space Age, and the widespread deployment of intercontinental ballistic missiles, early warning of an enemy strike was of critical importance. This was originally carried by the Tactical Air Command, and other aspects of space launch and satellite operation had been handled by the Air Force Systems Command. These were combined to form a major command whose mission has since expanded in the age of the computer “to provide resilient and affordable space and cyberspace capabilities for the Joint Force and the Nation.” In 2018, US president Donald Trump announced his intention to form a Space Force, an entirely independent branch of the US military on par with the other five services.

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September 1, 1948 – The first flight of the Saab J-29, Sweden’s second turbojet fighter following the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the first Western European fighter to be built with a swept swing following WWII. Nicknamed Tunnan ( Barrel ), the J-29 was, despite its ungainly appearance, a highly effective and agile fighter that served the Swedish Air Force for over 25 years before its retirement in 1976. The J-29 was powered by a single license-built !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojet, known as the Svenska Flygmotor RM 2B, that gave it a maximum speed of 660 mph, and it was armed with a four 20mm cannons as well as rockets or air-to-air missiles. A total of 661 were produced from 1948-1956, and it was retired in 1976.

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September 2, 1998 – The first flight of the Boeing 717, a twin-engine, narrow-body commercial airliner first developed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as the MD-95, the final variant of the venerable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! line. Following the merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing in 1997, the MD-95 was rebranded as the Boeing 717, though Boeing had already used 717 as the internal designation of the military version of the Boeing 367-80 that entered service as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and KC-135 Stratotanker. The 717 entered service in 1999 with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (formerly !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) as a medium-range airliner for the 100-seat market. When production ended in 2006, a total of 156 had been produced.

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September 2, 1949 – The first flight of the de Havilland Venom, a single-seat turbojet-powered fighter-bomber developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The twin-tail boom configuration allowed for a shorter tailpipe behind the engine that took advantage of as much power as the early !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojet could offer. Like the Vampire, the Venom was still built from a composite of wood and metal, but a thinner wing allowed greater speeds, while wingtip fuel tanks increased range. The Venom was introduced in 1952 and was the first British fighter to be fitted with an ejection seat. The Venom served the RAF until 1962, and with the Swiss Air Force until 1983.

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(RAF)

September 2, 1942 – The first flight of the Hawker Tempest, an improved version of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter-bomber. The Tempest benefited from a more powerful engine and a new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to become a formidable attack aircraft. The Tempest was one of the most powerful fighters of the war, and possessed particularly good low-level performance. The Tempest was powered by a single !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! liquid-cooled 24-cylinder engine that developed around 3,000 hp, had a top speed of 432 mph, and was armed with four 20mm !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! cannons and up to 1,000 pounds of bombs or rockets. Introduced in January 1944, just over 1,700 Tempests were produced, and it was retired following the war.

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(Fred Wallace Special Collection)

September 2, 1925 – The crash of the rigid airship USS Shenandoah, the first of four rigid airships purchased by the US Navy. Shenandoah (ZR-1) was based on the German Zeppelin !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and it was the first airship to be filled with helium rather than more flammable hydrogen. Shenandoah took its maiden flight on September 4, 1923, and performed the first transcontinental flight in July 1924. On September 2, 1925, Shenandoah set out from Lakehurst, New Jersey for a promotional flight across the Midwest. While flying through a line of thunderstorms over Ohio, the airship was lifted by a violent updraft above the pressure limits of its gas bags and broke apart. Fourteen members of the 29-man crew were killed. Thousands of Ohioans came to view the crash site, and widespread looting of the hulk took place, with critical instruments stolen that could have helped with the investigation into the crash. Nevertheless, the crash led to changes in operating procedures, better weather forecasting, and the strengthening of future airships.

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(US Library of Congress)

September 2, 1910 – Blanche Stuart Scott makes the first solo airplane flight by a woman in the United States. An adventurer at heart, Scott was the second woman to drive an automobile across the United States, and her notoriety led to an offer of flying lessons from American aviation pioneer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Scott went on to become a professional pilot and made her debut with the Curtiss exhibition team as the first woman to fly at a public event, earning her the nickname “Tomboy of the Air.” After gaining fame as a stunt pilot, Scott was the first American woman to make a long-distance flight of 60 miles, and also became a test pilot for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . She retired from flying in 1916 because she was upset by an American public that seemed obsessed with air crashes, as well as the lack of opportunity for women pilots.

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(NASA)

September 3, 2017 – Astronaut Peggy Whitson returns to Earth after setting an endurance record for American astronauts. With the culmination of her third long-duration mission aboard the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (ISS), Whitson ran her total number of days spent in space to 665, breaking astronaut !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ’ previous record of 534 days of total time in space. Whitson made her first trip to the ISS in 2002 and stayed for 184 days, then returned in 2008 for a 191-day stay. On her third trip she spent 289 days in space. At age 57, Whitson is the world’s oldest spacewoman and the first to command the ISS twice. She has spent more then 53 hours performing spacewalks, the most of any female astronaut. In 2009, Whitson became the first woman to be appointed chief of the astronaut office, a position she held until 2012. While Whitson’s recored is for accumulated days in space, the record for the longest single stay in orbit belongs to cosmonaut !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , who spent 437 days on the Russian space station !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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(Juergen Lehle)

September 3, 1982 – The first flight of the Beechcraft 1900, a 19-passenger twin-turboprop regional airliner and one of the most popular small airliners ever produced. The 1900 was developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and was designed with all-weather flight capabilities, as well as the ability to operate from short runways. Power comes from a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprops which give the 1900 a top speed of 518 mph. When production ended in 2002, Beechcraft had built nearly 700 aircraft, and it remains in service with over 80 civilian operators and numerous military operators, including the US Air Force, where it is known as the C-12J.

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September 3, 1981 – The first flight of the British Aerospace 146, a short-haul regional airliner manufactured from 1978-2001 by British Aerospace. The 146 is powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofan engines mounted on pods under a high cantilever wing and can accommodate from 82-112 passengers depending on configuration. The 146 entered service in 1983 and became very popular at city airports, where it takes advantage of its short-field performance and quiet operation. Nearly 400 copies of the 146 were produced, and it continues to serve worldwide as an airliner and cargo aircraft, including some that have been converted for aerial firefighting duties.

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(Author unknown)

September 3, 1948 – The loss of Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Great Artiste . The two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , are well known to history. But they weren’t the only aircraft of that type to make those historic flights. On each mission, the nuclear armed bombers were accompanied by two other Silverplate B-29s, one with photographers and the other with measuring instruments, and The Great Artiste (44-27353) was the only B-29 to fly on both atomic raids. Built at the Glenn L. Martin Plant, The Great Artiste flew conventional bombing missions before the nuclear raids of August 1945, but during a polar navigation training mission after the war it developed engine trouble after takeoff from Goose Bay, Labrador and overran the runway on landing and was seriously damaged. Despite its historical significance, The Great Artiste was scrapped in 1949.

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September 4, 1957 – The first flight of the Lockheed JetStar, the first dedicated business jet to enter service and, with accommodations for up to ten passengers, the largest in its class at the time. Unlike most !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of the era, the JetStar had four engines rather than two, and was originally powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbojets. Later production aircraft received quieter, more fuel-efficient !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofan engines that gave it a top speed of 547 mph. Not only did it serve as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! personal jet, the JetStar entered US military service as the C-140 and also served as President !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! personal aircraft, which he nicknamed !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Just over 200 were produced from 1957-1978.

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(San Diego Air and Space Museum)

September 4, 1936 – Louise Thaden becomes the first woman to win the prestigious coast-to-coast Bendix Trophy Race. At a time when aviation was dominated by male pilots, Louise Thaden shocked the world when she and her copilot Blanche Noyes won the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! transcontinental race, setting a new world record time of 14 hours 55 minutes while flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But that wasn’t the first of Thaden’s accomplishments. She set a altitude record of 20,260 feet for woman pilots in 1928, an endurance record of over 22 hours in 1929, teamed up with another aviatrix, Frances Marsalis, to set a record time of 196 hours in the air, and was a founding member of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! organization for woman pilots. Though she retired from racing in 1938, Thaden served with the Civil Air Patrol during WWII. Thaden died in 1979.

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(Author unknown)

September 4, 1933 – The death of Florence Gunderson Klingensmith, an American aviatrix active during the Golden Age of Aviation and one of the first to participate in air races with male pilots. Klingensmith became interested in aviation after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! visited her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, and she began her flying career as a performing skydiver in exchange for flying lessons. She acquired her first airplane by going door to door to solicit funds and, in 1931, she set a world record by completing 1,078 loops. Taking up air racing, Klingensmith was the first woman to enter the Frank Phillips Trophy Race in 1933 flying a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . While flying in fourth place at over 200 mph, the airplane began to disintegrate, and Klingensmith was killed while attempting to bail out. Her death led to a ban on women participating in air races. Klingensmith was 29 years old.

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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user314 > ttyymmnn 09/04/2018 at 15:01

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The JetStar is such sexy looking little plane.

Though I question that “Whisperstar” logo on the engines

Like Eastern,  TWA had one for pilot training and “corporate use”

facw > ttyymmnn 09/04/2018 at 15:08

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The Beech 1900 is the worst airliner I’ve flown o n. Everything about it just felt bad. Sort of like the aircraft equivalent of a school bus.

Post-9/11 they added some silly looking security doors that didn’t go all the way to ceiling (because there was no room for them), as if it would be worth anyone’s trouble to hijack one anyway.

They do apparently have a surprisingly dangerous amount of wake-turbulence. At one point I was coming in for a landing behind one that was a bit slow taking off, so my instructor called off the landing, but we still got caught in its wake. Instantly rolled my Cessna 152 into a decent bank. Nothing unrecoverable (my instructor handled that, though I don’t think I would have had an issue), but the speed at which it happened was pretty stunning (especially combined with the low altitude).

ttyymmnn > user314 09/04/2018 at 15:09

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The JetStar has always been one of my favorites. That top picture looks like it was taken at LBJ’s ranch out near Johnson City, west of Austin. I got a chance to see it last year. Beautiful bird. A JetStar also featured in Goldfinger, but with a laughably bad livery featuring backwards flags.

ttyymmnn > facw 09/04/2018 at 15:11

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I’ll have to take your word for it. I’ve never flown on one, nor have I tried landing behind one. Interesting about the turbulence, though.

facw > ttyymmnn 09/04/2018 at 15:16

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Rarely see them anymore, so you may have missed your chance. I was not at all sad when they were replaced by Dash-8s on the routes I traveled on.

ttyymmnn > facw 09/04/2018 at 15:16

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I don’t think I’ve seen one in 20 years or more.

facw > ttyymmnn 09/04/2018 at 15:26

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 A quick look seems to indicate that they are mainly used for cargo these days, though there are some regional airlines that still fly them, including a couple that operate as Air Canada Express. Austin’s a bit far for regional flights from Canada though.

ttyymmnn > facw 09/04/2018 at 15:29

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Just a bit. Though Air Canada does fly here. 

facw > ttyymmnn 09/04/2018 at 17:10

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Yep, for both Goldfinger’s plane:

and the US military one you pictured.

I think I’ve read that they were indeed the exact same plane, just with some small cosmetic changes, which does seem possible.

ttyymmnn > facw 09/04/2018 at 17:19

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The JetStar, or at least a model of it, appears early in the film with Pussy Galore at the controls. Later, it appears in fake US military livery when Goldfinger tried to knock off Fort Knox. I can’t say for sure, but I would bet that the one I pictured above was a non-flying prop dolled up for the movie.

ttyymmnn > facw 09/04/2018 at 17:21

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And by prop, I mean a real jet that wasn’t actually flown but was used for filming on the ground.

facw > ttyymmnn 09/04/2018 at 17:25

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Circling back to KAL 007 I’m always a bit amazed at how little response there was to intentionally shooting down a civilian airliner. From my largely post-cold-war view, it seems an incredibly outrageous act (and I feel the same way about Iran Air 655). Granted, I don’t have a good answer for what should have been done. I’d like to have seen the people involved charged with murder, but I don’t even know if the act was illegal (knowingly   shooting down a civilian aircraft in peacetime, far from any potential targets for a sneak attack, and without communicating with the aircraft should be a crime, but it probably isn’t).

I wonder if Reagan would have responded more aggressively had it been US carrier’s flight?  

ttyymmnn > facw 09/04/2018 at 17:37

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Think about the reaction when USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian A300. There was lots of blustering and official apologies, then it was all over. Despite all the posturing, nobody has the stomach for another large scale war that could easily turn nuclear, as it might have back in 1983. Hell, the Russians shot down an airliner a couple of years ago and nobody remembers it except the families of the victims. 

facw > ttyymmnn 09/04/2018 at 18:42

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I’m pretty sure the US has never apologized for Iran Air 655, though we did pay a $ 132M settlement.

ttyymmnn > facw 09/04/2018 at 18:47

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“...the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident...”

Sorry not sorry. 

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > facw 09/04/2018 at 20:41

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The night it was shot down, the soviets were conducting missle tests and there was a US spy plane (4 engien kc 135) that was circling just outside soviet airspace. There are theories that the kc135 knew the flight was off course, which doesn’t look good, going “oh yeah we should have warned them”

also korean airlines wanted to bury it. In the preceeding 6 months there had been 2 incidents where pilots landed to fix their navigational computers, one was fired and another severly demoted. So even though the pilots knew they would be off, kept flying. 

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 09/05/2018 at 06:59

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Rea gan is the one to thank for GPS/Sat-Nav

ttyymmnn > pip bip - choose Corrour 09/05/2018 at 08:18

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Or at least for making it available to the public.

someassemblyrequired > ttyymmnn 09/05/2018 at 09:56

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I missed it as well, but Sunday (the 2nd) was the 20th anniversary of Swissair 111.

ttyymmnn > someassemblyrequired 09/05/2018 at 10:28

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I remember that, and will have to go back and write about it. Some of the more recent accidents are actually harder to keep track of than the older once, since the lists I use aren’t always kept up to date.

someassemblyrequired > ttyymmnn 09/05/2018 at 11:02

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The local paper has quite a few articles that might be useful here:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/tags/rememberswissair

This is one of the crazier stories about that flight - there were about $300 million in diamonds and cash, plus a Picasso on the flight.   Lloyd’s wanted to salvage after the investigation was complete, but was prohibited due to complaints from family members.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/rememberswissair/1594074-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-lost-diamonds-from-the-crash-of-swissair-flight

ttyymmnn > someassemblyrequired 09/05/2018 at 11:04

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I would imagine the diamonds were salvageable, but I doubt the Picasso survived. Still, you never know. From what I read this morning, there was only one passenger who was identifiable on sight. The others were so badly mangled they needed dental records or DNA.

someassemblyrequired > ttyymmnn 09/05/2018 at 11:30

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Yes, it was an extraordinarily violent crash. A friend of the family lived close by and ended up getting drafted into the recovery efforts when some first responders and soldiers just couldn’t handle what they were seeing.

ttyymmnn > someassemblyrequired 09/05/2018 at 11:33

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Honestly, I don’t know how anybody can do it. There are some very gruesome  pictures floating around the Internet from the Germanwings crash.